Many persons suffer from various allergies, many of which are caused by ingesting food containing allergens.
Although the biochemistry is not precisely understood, it is believed that the allergen causes a specific reagin to be formed in the bloodstream upon ingestion or other contact of the allergen with the body. The ability to produce reagins in response to a given allergen is thought to be an inherited characteristic that differentiates an allergic from a non-allergic person. The specificity of the allergen-reagin reaction and its dependence on molecular configuration of the allergen and reagin is similar to the antigen-antibody reaction. In this respect, the allergen molecule, which is often a protein, may be regarded as a key which exactly fits the corresponding structural shape of the reagin molecule, which may be likeened to a lock. When this occurs, an allergic reaction results.
Different materials contain different allergens. Not all persons can form the appropriate reagin with which the allergen from a specific source can react and are therefore not allergic to that particular allergen containing substance. When someone does produce a particular reagin in response to the presence of the specific allergin, an allergic reaction results. Allergic reactions range from very mild symptoms, such as minor skin rashes (allergic eczema and urticaria), dermal, respiratory, including allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma, gastro-intestinal, migraine allergic type symptoms, to violent manifestations of these illnesses. Violent illnesses have been known to even include shock-like reaction, vascular collapse, allergic anaphylaxis, and for some people under certain conditions, death.
Many allergists have recognized that chocolate contains proteins which are allergens. The allergens in chocolate frequently cause the formation of reagins in many persons. Thus, many persons are allergic to chocolate, and chocolate allergy is common in both adults and children. The symptoms may include mild to severe allergic skin eruptions, respiratory tract allergy (allergic rhinitis and asthma), severe gastro-intestinal reactions, migraine, and allergic anaphylaxis.
Chocolate is a very frequently used and popular food product. It is used not only in confections such as candy, cookies, ice cream and syrup, but also as a flavoring for other food products, such as breakfast cereals, hot and cold beverages, desserts and nonfood products, such as medicines. Because of the widespread use of chocolate flavored products, due primarily to their pleasing taste, there is a great need for a hypoallergenic chocolate having a taste equal to that of the presently available chocolate which causes allergic reactions.
Chocolate is manufactured from beans of the Theobroma cacao tree. The beans are received by the chocolate manufacturer who processes the beans by cleaning, roasting, hulling, blending, and grinding them. As the shells are removed, the beans are broken into fragments called nibs. The nibs are then finely ground and chocolate liquor is produced. The mixture of cocoa butter, a tasteless fat, and cocoa in the finely ground nibs forms a free-flowing substance called chocolate liquor.
It is this chocolate liquor which is used in most chocolate flavored food products. This chocolate liquor also contains the protein allergens which cause chocolate allergy. The chocolate liquor comprises cocoa butter and cocoa powder. When chocolate liquor is heated and placed under pressure, the cocoa butter is squeezed out of the chocolate liquor and separated from the remaining mass of material. This remaining mass is then finely ground to produce cocoa powder. Since the cocoa butter is simply a tasteless fat, it is the cocoa powder which contains all of the protein allergens. Although cocoa powder is used in many chocolate flavored products, most often chocolate liquor is used to impart the chocolate flavor to food products, such as chocolate bars.
Bresnick, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,309,884, teaches a method of producing a hypoallergenic chocolate product by extracting the phosphatide constituent contained therein prior to roasting. It is stated in this patent that a normal roasting operation ordinarily decomposes the phosphatide constituents. The patentee believes that the phosphatide constituent in its depolymerized state causes gastric distress.
There is no extraction process in the present invention. The cocoa powder is treated so that substantially all of the protein allergens are denatured. Furthermore, gastric distress and other symptoms of chocolate allergy have been reduced by the present invention, without resorting to the extra step of phosphatide extraction prior to roasting.
Lataner, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,487,931, discloses an edible product comprising an edible fat, an edible non-crystallizable powdered material and sugar. The edible fat may be cocoa butter, among other edible fats, and the edible non-crystallizable powdered material may be cocoa powder, among other powders such as milk powder, tri-calcium phosphate, flour, starch, or the like. The solid ingredients are mixed at an elevated temperature, from about 110.degree. F to 190.degree. F, as is customary in producing standard chocolate products. The mixture of solid ingredients is then heated with water and sugar at a temperature of at least 150.degree. F to dissolve at least the major portion of the sugar and to reduce the water content if necessary.
In each example where cocoa butter is used with cocoa powder, it is in the form of chocolate liquor. In examples II and III, additional cocoa butter is added to the chocolate liquor. There is no teaching that the cocoa butter and cocoa powder be added together as separate ingredients. Furthermore, there is no teaching or suggestion that the chocolate product formed in the Lataner patent is hypoallergenic. Nor is there exclusion of equally offensive allergens, such as flour (wheat) and starch (usually corn in origin) as well as exclusion of milk and milk products (powdered milk or milk sugar).